Most countries in the world are experiencing great difficulties concerning the hospital expenses. More and more types of illnesses can be treated. Sickness that was impossible to treat last year may be possible to treat now due to more advanced equipments. The pressure on hospitals is creating huge economic and political problems in many countries. The best way to reduce the pressure on hospitals is to reduce the number people that need hospital treatments. New technologies provide with new opportunities in assisting family doctors, medical laboratories and health centres in providing with the health care. The key issue is prevention.
The use of the Internet has provided means for forwarding measurement results from remote locations to central hospitals and other health care providers, i.e. telemedicine or medical telecommunication. Prior art shows several systems where one or another parameter may be measured remotely and the result being forwarded to a central for storage and optionally for forwarding to other interested parties.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,313 (Hinkle) discloses for example a system for remotely monitoring the health of a patient to inform the patient as to his/her state of heath by peak expiratory flow measurements. The data obtained from the patient is analysed at the patient's site, and the patient is notified when an indication for a significant change in health status is found and may instruct the patient to contact the health care provider. Online communication between the remote system and a system at the health care provider is described, as well as a central database for storing information. The health care provider may receive information directly from the remote system or via the central database.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,999 (Knapp) discloses a system for personal local health digitizers, for example for determination of ovulation time, and a centralised database that collects and stores monitoring data from a large number of individuals. The information obtained locally may be partly processed locally to provide the user with initial information. Physicians connected to the system are allowed to receive information from the centralised database if authorised by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,937,323 (Worthington et al.) discloses a system for chemical and biological testing using a specially designed bio-disc and optical reader attached to a computer. The system may be located at a health center or at the user's private house. Test data are processed remotely and the processed data are forwarded to a central data processing unit connected to the computer through a network for analysis, wherein the analysis include trending and multivariate analysis.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,320 (Margrey et al.) discloses an interactive multi-station medical specimen analysis for analysing medical specimens at remote locations and forwarding through a network for evaluating the results of each of the analyses to a central laboratory. Immediate analyses are provided at the remote station to inform the user of the measurement results, whereas trend analyses may be conducted centrally.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,844,149 (Goldman) discloses a system for remotely sample treatment, wherein the sample is arranged on a multi-component strip and chemical components of the blood are detected. The measurement data may be processed locally or at a central unit via a network, such as the internet. Results are be forwarded to a health care provider.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,963,907 (McBride et al.) discloses a system for remotely monitoring a physical parameter, e.g. cardiac function, by positioning a sensor on the individual to be tested. Test measurement data are forwarded via the Internet to a central server having a database for each individual for processing and analysis, including trend analysis, of the data. The database is used to generate a medical life history and trend reporting for each individual. The results of the analyses may be downloaded to the individual and/or the selected physician.
There is a basic need for a service, which can inform of the basic health parameters and provide with an early warning within different types of diseases. Hospitals all over the world are having troubles due to increased number of patients and improved techniques to cure people. If hospitals could receive early warnings concerning these diseases, not only considerable reduction in treatment time is possible, but also much improved chances of recovery for the patients.